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The previous two months I separated my weeks after Sunday. Mostly because for planning I think in terms of my work week. My work week begins on Monday and runs through Friday. Then I have the weekend for whatever. This time I did the standard (US) calendar week. I messed up writing the year a little bit. I didn’t quite pick up my pen when I was writing. But hey no need to be perfect for something just for me.

I barely had room for important days on the bottom. However, I wanted to make sure I had enough room for my washi tape at the top of the page. If you like this washi tape, I got it fromSusieBsupplies on Etsy.

So for a while I’ve been wanting to post my progress with my bullet journal.

Things that have not worked for me:

Weekly layout – I knew from the start that this layout would not work for me. I didn’t even attempt to create one at any point. My Monday – Friday schedule is consistent and I don’t have enough going on each week to have to record it. Maybe that sounds like a boring life to some, but eh. I work the same hours Monday through Friday and between getting ready for work until I get home, I use 12 hours out of my day. That doesn’t give me much time to schedule things to do with the rest of my day. To be honest, by the time I get home I’m exhausted. It’s a combination of both how really early I get up, and the fact that my job requires extreme attention to detail.

Habit tracking – This didn’t work at all. I’ve switched to using an app to track things like this instead. Mostly I needed to be reminded to track my habits. Having to remember to open my bullet journal every day, then open to my habit tracking page to remind me just didn’t work. (I use Loop – Habit Tracker for those wondering. Android OS.)

Mood tracking – Yeah this died out quickly. For one, moods can change during the day. Two for the same reason the habit tracker didn’t work. (I use Daylio.)

Printing out monthly layouts and taping or gluing them onto a page of the journal – Over time I noticed the pages of the journal started to bulge. That doesn’t bode well for just starting out a journal. Over time the binding would weaken from the extra weight of it all.

So I’ve already been reflecting for a while on what I would like to do for next year. The answer that keeps coming back is more self-care and more downtime.

I get up really early for work. Then I do my work which is really attention detailed. So when I get home I’m exhausted. Lately I have needed to make myself just rest in bed after I get home. Sometimes I take a nap. Sometimes I just relax lying there and listen to some soothing music. I’ve noticed when I don’t take this time, I just end up feeling worse and worse.

So I’ve been looking into apps like meditation, logging moods, and logging anything I’m grateful for. I’m also looking into some soothing music that I can listen to.

And yeah I have to admit to myself I may have to force myself to take care of myself. It’s not something that’s really innate for me. Growing up I got the wrong message that taking care of myself was being selfish and lazy. I had to spend my time working, helping out around the house, and having to take care of requests from others. Thus I lack the skills to self-sooth and self-tend. Even when I’m sick I feel bad that I’m resting and not being productive, even though I know my body needs rest so I can have the energy to be productive again. That attitude is not surprising to me. My mother’s philosophy when I was sick was that if I wasn’t vomiting or running a fever then I had to go to school or work no matter how miserable I felt. Taking time off is bad. Resting is bad. You’re not that ill. And so on.

I think I run on the hamster wheel of life a bit too much with being always on, always doing something. I need to help reteach myself that taking time to meditate, more downtime to read or listen to music, is also productive. It’s just productive in a different way. It’s okay and even good to take care of myself and it isn’t being selfish nor lazy.

So that’s my big goal to work on for the year. Relax, unwind, take care of me in healthy ways. It won’t be easy but it’s something I need and want to incorporate into my life. I need to be able to slow myself down and enjoy quiet moments. Also, I need to make sure I do take the time to do things like daily dental care, skin care, and so on. (Yes my current lack of self-care is both spiritual and physical.)

And sure there are other things I would like to do. I started crocheting a while back and stopped. I would like to try that again. I also want to get more into programming. And we’ll see if I can focus on those things, but it has to work itself into the overarching theme of not overdoing and overworking myself anymore. It’s time to focus on me, fulfilling my needs, and bringing more care and joy into my life.

So I decided to try to give Bullet Journaling a try. I ordered the official Bullet Journal off their website since it talks about how to use the system in the beginning of the journal. This was after hours of researching what kind of journal I should use. I was basically seeing what brand of journal would be the best. In the end, I was deciding between Rhodia (thicker paper, fewer pages) and Leuchtturm1917 (fan favorite). I figured go with the official to start, and I can always upgrade to Rhodia down the line. (Leuchtturm apparently has an issue with ghosting, I’ll see how it goes.)

I had heard about Bullet Journal before, but the video talking about the system didn’t really grab my attention. Instead what finally got my attention was seeing pictures and videos of how other people used this system to create their own journal. Even now I’m still trying to look at different ideas people have used and different layout designs.

For the past couple of years, I have used or tried to use, the Passion Planner. While I love it, and would still recommend it to some people, it isn’t quite the perfect fit for me. For one, an hourly breakdown of my weekday is pointless for me. Pretty much half of every weekday is taken up by work. (Getting up, getting ready, driving, working, driving back, decompressing.) If I had more events I had to attend or things to do based on hours of the day every week, it may have been more useful. I needed something a bit more general to write down appointments, meetings, etc. I also needed something to write down my accomplishments so I can reflect back on a week and feel like I did something and be proud of it.

A bullet journal is a way to get everything I want to remember, write it down, and track it all in one place. I am already starting a list of things that I can use the new journal for. My journal is shipping via media mail, so it’ll be a while before I can get started officially. (Update: It’ll arrive on Saturday, April 22nd.Today! Wednesday, April 19th!) I know I have the problem of being a perfectionist, and I worry about messing up a new journal. Apparently, that’s a problem some others have felt in the Bullet Journal community. 😛 So this will be a practice of embracing imperfections a bit more. I’m going to try to start slow, neat, and practical. Then as time progresses I’ll probably figure out more and more how I want to set up my journal. Hopefully, this will be the answer to getting everything I need and want to be jotted down in one place.

So it’ll be something new and interesting to try. Fingers crossed this will both work and be fun to do. Until then, I’ll be looking up various layouts and ideas other people have done.